Eminence Orchestra AU Profile

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Why Australia has the best gaming orchestra in the world.

By Cam Shea

Australian gamers should count themselves lucky. A couple of times a year we have the chance to hear some of the greatest pieces of music from videogames, performed live by a full orchestra. Yes, we have a home grown gaming orchestra of our very own, but what's impressive about Eminence is that it's about more than just bringing videogame scores to the masses - it's about a love of the medium, and a drive to showcase the exemplary work done by videogame composers.

While Video Games Live and Play are now well known around the world, back when the Eminence Orchestra formed in October 2003 (initially under the name InfinityBlue), they truly were breaking new ground. The founder of Eminence, and its first violinist, Hiroaki Yura wasn't even sure there was a market for videogame concerts, but was determined to see how a crowd would respond to some of his favourite pieces. After plastering Sydney with posters, the first concert - A Night in Fantasia - drew 1800 people, and Yura knew that there was an audience.

Since then, Eminence has gone from strength to strength. For the second set of concerts, Nobuo Uematsu, one of the most famous Japanese videogame composers, was in attendance. For those unfamiliar with Uematsu's work, he scored a little series of games known as Final Fantasy, and has since moved on to the Mistwalker titles Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Needles to say, Uematsu's presence at the second event was a huge coup for Eminence, and made hearing iconic pieces such as One Winged Angel live all the more exciting.

Eminence's ties to Japanese composers are now stronger than ever. For A Night in Fantasia 2007, Eminence will have six very special guests - Hitoshi Sakimoto, composer of the Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics scores, Yasunori Mitsuda, composer of the Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross scores, Junichi Nakatsuru, composer for the SoulCalibur series and Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, Masaru Shiina, composer of the Tales of Legendia and Tekken: Dark Resurrection scores, Yoko Shimomura, composer for the Kingdom Hearts series and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Ko Ohtani, the composer of the Shadow of the Colossus score. That's an all-star line-up, and probably the biggest of its kind to date, anywhere in the world. Not only will they be attending the concerts, but audience members will get the chance to meet them afterwards, and to get games/t-shirts/chests signed, at no extra charge. If this absolutely stellar line-up doesn't excite your eardrums, nothing will.

Eminence is known in the gaming community for its videogame performances, but most of the concerts have included anime scores too. The group has also branched out beyond that, with their biggest production to date being World of John Williams, a showcase for the phenomenal film scores - including the likes of Star Wars and Harry Potter, for which Williams is famous. For that concert the original scores were used, and there were 80 musicians on stage including a 60 person choir. Despite playing to packed audiences, once you factor in rehearsals for an event like World of John Williams, the bittersweet reality is that to keep the entry price reasonable, you're not going to make much money. In fact, Eminence lost money.

For those who still think videogame music is nothing but bleeps and bloops, we say "behold".

That's why the orchestra is expanding its scope. As Hiroaki told us: "One big change for last year was we said 'hey, we're not supposed to be making money out of concerts', because, well sure it's a concert, it's a risk, so the more risk you take, the more reward you should get if it succeeds. But I don't really believe in that business principal, because why we do our music is not because we want to make money, it's because we want to spread the art form. So we said 'hey, let's forget about making money out of concerts so we can survive for another month. Rather, let's play these concerts so that we actually get a lot of people in, and they know about this music. Let's make money, and sustain ourselves, from recordings.'"

To that end, Eminence has quickly lined up a couple of high profile gigs, both of which were recently completed out at Fox Studios in Sydney. The first - and only one we can talk about - was to record the score for Studio Gonzo's new anime series Romeo X Juliet, a massive coup considering this is the studio behind the likes of Samurai 7, GANTZ, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Real Bout High School and countless others. The score was written by Hitoshi Sakimoto (as mentioned earlier, Sakimoto scored FFXII and FF Tactics), who came out to supervise the sessions, and we were lucky enough to attend one of the recording days to speak to him, as well as to the Producer and Director of Romeo X Juliet. Keep an eye out for our interviews later in the week.

Eminence has a couple of natural advantages when it comes to shifting into recording for games and anime. Firstly, the team has a great relationship with the biggest Japanese composers (the Sakimoto link is no accident), and secondly, as Hiroaki told us, Eminence are "the most specialised orchestra in the world to do this kind of stuff... It's what we've been doing since we formed in 2004."

It's a good point, and the fact that the core members of the orchestra haven't really changed since 2004 means that Eminence has a wealth of experience under its belt. How were members recruited for the orchestra in the first place? Hiroaki told us point blank about the qualities he was most looking for: "They have to respect the music and they've got to be damn good."

Hiroaki in action, with Virtuoso Hair in full effect.

For most of the classically trained musicians on staff, playing music from videogames and anime is a breath of fresh air; a radical departure from what they're used to. The buzz when playing one of the biggest crowd pleasers, such as One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII (a track Eminence has now performed live six times in Sydney alone - each to a standing ovation), is unlike anything many of the musicians have experienced in the slightly more stuffy world of classical music. It's no wonder so many of them have hung around.

Where does Hiroaki Yura want Eminence to be in a few years time? "We want to be touring the world. We want to be recording a lot of music to provide the money, and then we'll tour the world playing charity concerts - I don't care as long as people are there."

For now though, Eminence and fans alike have the next A Night in Fantasia concerts to look forward to. This year they're splitting the gaming and anime components into two separate sets of concerts. Gaming is up first, with A Night in Fantasia 2007: Symphonic Games Edition taking place in Sydney on the 20th and 21st of April at 7:30pm at the Sydney Town Hall, and in Melbourne on April 27th at 7:30pm at Hamer Hall.

Awesome art for what should be an awesome concert.

What's on the play list for the nights? The 60 piece orchestra and choir will be playing pieces from Shadow of the Colossus, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Kingdom Hearts 2, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, World of Warcraft, Katamari Damacy and Chrono Cross to name a few. Hiroaki told us that 80-90% of the pieces are world premieres that have never been performed live before, and that in choosing the selection the focus was on selecting an array of quality compositions that will drive the orchestra to new heights. Given the strength of the performances we've seen in the past, that's a tall order.

For more on the concerts, head over to Eminence Online, and be sure to keep an eye on it, especially since Hitoshi Sakimoto has promised an original composition for the site by the end of the month.

That's Mitsuda in the foreground, helping nut out the rearrangement.

For now though, we have a very special download for IGN Insiders. Eminence has given us a recording of a new arrangement from composer Yasunori Mitsuda of Radical Dreamers from Chrono Cross. The original was for a single guitar and voice, but when Mitsuda came out for "Passion" - a series of concerts Eminence performed in December 2006, he rearranged it for violin and double dubbed guitar, and they recorded it, with Hiroaki Yura on violin and Zane Banks on guitar. Check out the stirring results over at IGN Insider.